Solar Charger

Here is a solar charger circuit that is used to charge Lead Acid or Ni-Cd batteries using the solar energy power. The circuit harvests solar energy to charge a 6 volt 4.5 Ah rechargeable battery for various applications. The charger has Voltage and Current regulation and Over voltage cut off facilities.

12 volt DC is available from the panel to charge the battery. The charging current passes through D1 to the voltage regulator IC LM 317. By adjusting its Adjust pin, output voltage and current can be regulated.

VR is placed between the adjust pin and ground to provide an output voltage of 9 volts to the battery. Resistor R3 Restrict the charging current and diode D2 prevents discharge of current from the battery.

Transistor T1 and Zener diode ZD act as a cut off switch when the battery is full. Normally T1 is off and battery gets charging current. When the terminal voltage of the battery rises above 6.8 volts, Zener conducts and provides base current to T1. It then turns on grounding the output of LM317 to stop charging.

Solar panels are as good as power supplies of an average of 12V in bright sunlight. The only problem is unregulated voltage due to variation in intensity of light. IC LM 317 solves the problem by regulating the output voltage but it again dissipated 2V across it which makes the system less efficient. Solar charger circuits need voltage regulators so as to charge the batteries at constant voltage. The battery charging process should be stopped once it is fully charged and this is ensured using a zener which will start conducting at the cut off voltage. The charger circuit is a simple, ready to use lead acid battery charger and is a good way to tap sun’s energy on the go.